Aviano airman gets 2 ˝ years, discharge in drunken driving death

Jun. 11, 2014 - 06:00AM
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An Aviano Air Base, Italy, airman pleaded guilty Tuesday to drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter in a crash that killed a Security Forces airman a year ago.

A military judge sentenced Demarrius Jeffers, a traffic management journeyman with the 31st Logistics Readiness Squadron, to 2˝ years in prison, reduction to airman and a bad conduct discharge, Capt. Lacie Collins, an Aviano spokeswoman, said in an email.

Jeffers chose to have his case heard by a military judge rather than a jury, Collins said.

Jeffers had a blood-alcohol concentration of at least 0.10 when he sped into oncoming traffic and ran off the road near the intersection of Strada Provinciale Number 7 and Via Menegoz outside Aviano on June 2, 2013, killing a passenger and injuring one other person, according to the charge sheet in the case.

Airman 1st Class Dennis Felton II, an Ohio native who had arrived at Aviano just four months earlier, died in the crash.

Prior to appearing on the Air Force judge advocate general’s online court-martial docket, the charges against Jeffers were not publicized. Aviano issued a news release following Felton’s base memorial service a year ago, which indicated only that he had had died in a car accident.

Felton joined the Air Force in August 2012, the release said. Aviano was his first duty assignment.

It was not clear from the charge sheet whether the injured person was also a passenger.